New Orleans Saints offensive players among most difficult to scout

Here's another reason why New Orleans Saints fans should love Drew Brees: He's even a positive factor during free agency.

Michael DeMocker/The Times-PicayuneIn three years with the New England Patriots, tight end David Thomas had 21 receptions for 261 yards in three seasons. In 12 games with the Saints, he caught 35 passes for 356 yards.Not only does nearly every player in the league want to play with the Saints' Super Bowl MVP quarterback, but his brilliance also keeps rival teams from raiding the Saints' roster for free agents.

How so?

NFL scouts will tell you that Saints offensive players are among the most difficult in the league to evaluate.

It's tough to gauge their abilities because the Saints' offense is so prolific with Brees under center it's hard to determine just how good the players are running it.

Rivals undoubtedly have bandied about these questions as they evaluate the Saints' roster:

Is Lance Moore the receiver who led the Saints with 79 receptions and 10 touchdowns in 2008, a poor man's Marvin Harrison? Or is he the guy who no team valued enough to draft out of the University of Toledo four years ago?

Is Pierre Thomas the versatile young runner who emerged as the Saints' best all-around offensive player the past two seasons? Or is he the back who 32 teams passed on in the 2007 NFL draft?

Is Bell the guy who averaged 114 rushing yards in season-opening wins against the Lions and Eagles? Or is he the Broncos and Texans castoff who nobody wanted two years ago when the Saints plucked him off the street?

Are these guys overlooked gems or simply products of the Saints' prolific offensive system?

It's the same evaluation NFL teams have had to make on "system" players from colleges like Texas Tech, Florida, Missouri, Kansas and Hawaii in recent years.

How much of the player's production is attributed to his talent and how much to the system? Which is more responsible?

In the case of the Saints' players, it's obviously a lot of both. But in New Orleans' explosive offense, which inflates numbers like hydrogen balloons, it's often difficult to tell.

Take tight end David Thomas for example. In three years with the Patriots, Thomas never caught more than 11 passes in a season. His three-year career totals were 21 receptions for 261 yards. In 12 games with the Saints, he caught 35 passes for 356 yards.

Billy Miller's improvement was even more dramatic. He failed to catch a pass in three games with the Cleveland Browns in 2005. Three years after the Saints signed him off the scrap pile, he grabbed 45 passes for 579 yards. Both numbers were near career bests.

So, on one hand, playing in the Saints' wide-open offense can do wonders a player's resume it can also hurt him in the pocket book.

Devery Henderson discovered this last year when he hit the free agent market. Henderson was coming off a career year, one in which he led the entire league with a 24.8 yards-per-catch average. That mark set a club record. No other receiver in the league came within 5 yards of it in 2008.

Yet when Henderson hit the market he didn't exactly create a feeding frenzy among bidders. There was interest. But no one knocked the socks off Henderson.

He eventually re-signed with the Saints. His four-year, $12 million deal paled in comparison to the five-year, $25 million contract Nate Burleson signed with the Detroit Lions on Friday.

Henderson and Burleson are considered solid No. 2 receivers. Yet Burleson banked twice as much money in free agency as Henderson.

Not that Henderson is complaining. After all, he earned a Super Bowl ring this past season and had a street named after him in hometown Opelousas last month.

Something tells me he and the rest of the Saints offensive players will gladly accept the "system" label if it means a few more rings along the way.